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Lawyers for LIV Golf told a US bankruptcy judge the upstart golf league was racing over the next month to sign up existing players for LIV 2.0, as part of a plan to restructure the circuit for a 2027 season.
“The [player] response has been enthusiastic,” said Matthew Williams, a lawyer with Gibson Dunn representing the league. But “we are not there yet and we may not get there”, he added.
LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday in New Jersey, listing about a dozen golfers among a roster of its 30 largest unsecured creditors. In the opening hearing before Judge Michael Kaplan, Williams said LIV Golf had secured a $50mn bankruptcy loan from its original backer, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, as well as executed a term sheet with private capital firm BC Partners to lead a $300mn investment in the so-called LIV 2.0.
The terms of the PIF-funded bankruptcy loan require that a final deal with BC be nailed down by early October or the restructuring will shift to a “wind down”.
“This restructuring support agreement [with BC Partners] has milestones and they are tight,” Williams said.
According to a term sheet filed with the court by LIV, players would swap their claims with the current league for equity in LIV 2.0 while agreeing to provide liability releases to LIV.
Players who then signed up to play in the new league, to be majority owned by players, could get signing bonuses as well as the ability to pursue personal “name, image and likeness” endorsements they had partially given up in the previous LIV system.
BC Partners has also expressed strong interest in assuming $5bn in LIV operating losses that could be used to offset future taxable income, the FT has previously reported.
Court filings over the previous day revealed the financial difficulties that preceded LIV’s Chapter 11 filing. The group had just $15mn in cash left at the time of its bankruptcy filing, having burned through $5bn in equity provided by PIF since 2021 and another $500mn from a secured loan the wealth fund made earlier this year to underwrite completion of the 2026 season.
In 2025, LIV generated just over $200mn in revenue, with half from corporate sponsorships. LIV’s television deals generated just 5 per cent of total revenue even as annual tournament prize money paid to players, before contractual signing bonuses, far exceeded that number.
LIV’s lawyers insisted the sports group was undermined by PIF’s decision to halt its funding just as the league was gaining momentum with its team-based global golf format.
“We’ve got the best golfers in the world . . . demand for this product is real and is growing,” Williams said.
LIV confirmed to the court that its bankruptcy petition showing players including Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau being owed just a few million dollars reflected only amounts due in the third quarter, as some players have multiyear agreements worth tens of millions of dollars outstanding.
LIV is now seeking to cancel those deals, in accordance with US bankruptcy law.
“[T]he current contracts between the Debtors and the Players do not reflect the contemplated compensation structure under LIV 2.0, and thus, while the Players are surely valuable contributors to the League, continuing to maintain these particular contracts post-petition in their current form would require the incurrence of potentially substantial administrative costs,” LIV wrote in a court filing.
Later this month, an official committee of unsecured creditors is expected to be approved by the court, a body that could include LIV golfers.
Noting that star athletes may directly participate in the restructuring process, Kaplan, the judge, noted the possible spectacle.
“You could sell tickets to the formation of this committee,” Kaplan quipped during the hearing.
